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The Fall River flows into Cascade Lake at the east end of Horseshoe Park. Cascade Lake, located about 5.3 mi west of Estes Park, was an artificial lake privately built in 1908 and obtained by Estes Park for power generation in 1945. Downstream from Cascade Lake, the Fall River gradient steepens again to 9 percent as it flows through a series of Pleistocene terminal moraines and into Aspenglen Campground (fig. Z). Downstream from the Estes Park powerplant, at an elevation of about 8,000 ft and about 1 mi downstream from Cascade Lake, the Fall River valley narrows noticeably, marking the probable maximum extent of Pleistocene glacial advances (Richmond, 1960; Jones and Quam, 1944). Below 8,000 ft, the Fall River flows down a relatively steep and narrow valley bordered by numerous bedrock outcrops and thin, small, discontinuous flood plains. The Fall River joins the Big Thompson River in Estes Park and then flows 0.7 mi before entering the west end of Lake Estes. Lake Estes is a large reservoir, formed behind Olympus dam, completed as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson project by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1948. 17,000 . ~ - 16,000 ~ c <E 0- ~"O 15,000 ~ 14,000 13,000 ,.. w 12,000 w ~ '" Z 11,000 0 ;:: " > 10,000 w ~ w 9000 8000 7000 RoOTing River 6000 I: " 5000 n 2 3 "0 C , o C, ~ E . u N i" M en "'0 ~ 3 f]) o C, ~ E . u c o "-;;; o . ~ 0; > ~iI: .....=<:: -. . .~- '~.s~ 'iij'~ ~ '<t o<:;:~ : "0,2..... <tI <l) "G 0 3 Gl'C::'1l J:: r:J 0 01 ,I- I ~ Horseshoe Park 0; > "' c ~ ~ ~ E 0 w ~ ~ " ,.. w ~ ~ " ,.. c' 0; "' w 2 " c:'t: E 0 "' ~ , .~ " . "0 C " . . ~ 0 " , c ~ ~w 0 <; .!;; a.> E . c ~~ " , . .5 > , " is E . "0 . ~ o ~ . --0 W - ,.. ~ - 0 "'u > I ' :J l .l Big Thompson Ri~'er Fall River 16 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DISTANCE DOWNSTREAM FROM LAWN LAKE DAM, IN MILES 13 14 16 Figure Z.--Long profile of flood path of the water from Lawn Lake dam and Cascade Lake dam failures. Vertical exaggeration 10.5 times. 7